Columbia claims 2019 ECAC DI Women's Indoor Tennis Championship
Ryan SImmons
By Ryan Simmons
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – No. 2 Columbia prevailed over No. 1 Princeton, 4-1, on Sunday, Feb. 10 to capture the 2019 ECAC Women’s Indoor Tennis Championship.
Princeton took the lead in the early going of the match by capturing the doubles point.
The pairing of Grace Joyce and Clare McKee picked up a 6-3 win over Columbia’s Christie Wan and Andrea Kevakian while Stephanie Schrage and Nathalie Rodilosso grabbed a 6-4 victory over the Lions’ Jennifer Kerr and Sarah Hu.
However, Columbia would not be denied in the singles portion of the match.
Columbia’s Akanksha Bhan knocked off Brianna Shvets in three sets. Wan defeated the Tigers’ Nicole Kalhorn, and Melissa Sakar won against McKee. Rodilosso defeated Hu to keep the Lions’ singles record in the match unblemished. Two other singles matches didn’t finish before the contest was decided.
The title is Columbia’s second overall and first since 2014, while denying Princeton its second-straight ECAC title.
In other action, No. 3 seed Harvard righted the ship on Sunday, picking up a win over No. 8 Cornell to finish the tournament in seventh place.
Harvard got on the board first by earning the doubles point. The duo of Jenna Friedel and Rachel Lim defeated Cornell’s Katherine Nguyen and Sarah Campell 7-5, while Erica Oosterlout and Natasha Gonzalez beat Valerie Ho and Mariko Iinuma.
Cornell picked up one doubles win as the pairing of Ana Elhom and Maria Adiaconitei won over Annika Bassey and Anna Li.
In singles, Oosterhout got Harvard in the win column with a victory over Cornell’s Nguyen and Friedel kept the winning ways going for the Crimson with a win against Iinuma.
Gonzalez knocked off Ho to round out the Harvard match victory.
Cornell’s Adiaconitei won against Harvard’s Lim for the Big Red’s lone singles victory.
Host and No. 7 Yale upended fifth-seed Darmouth to finish the tournament in fifth place.
Yale got the doubles point to start the match, picking up victories from the pairings of Samantha Martinelli/Jessie Gong and Caroline Dunleavy and Raissa Lou.
In singles play, Dunleavy upended Dartmouth’s Racquel Lyn 6-3, 6-2. The Bulldogs also got a 6-3, 6-3 win from Gong over Nicole Conard and Raissa Lou picked up a 6-4, 6-1 win over Chuyang Guan.
Dartmouth got a win from Jingyi Peng over Yale’s Caroline Amos.
Sixth-seeded Penn continued its solid run in the tournament by defeating No. 4 Brown, 4-0, in the third-place match.
The Quakers took the doubles point win victories from the teams of Marta Kowalska/Marija Curnic and Iuliia Bryzgolova/OJ Singh.
In singles play, Penn was just as dominant.
Bryzgolova defeated Devon Jack and Kowalska defeated Sophia Reddy.
Ashley Zhu completed the victory with a win over Juliana Simon
#3 Harvard 4, #8 Cornell 1
Doubles
1. Friedel/Lim (H) def. Nguyen/Campbell (C) 7-5
2. Oosterhout/Gonzalez (H) def. Ho/Iinuma (C) 6-3
3. Elhom/Adiaconitei (C) def. Bassey/Li (H) 6-4
Singles
1. Erica Oosterhout (H) def. Katherine Nguyen (C) 6-1, 6-3
2. Jenna Friedel (H) def. Mariko Iinuma (C) 6-2, 6-1
3. Maria Adiaconitei (C) def. Rachel Lim (H) 6-3, 6-1
4. Natasha Gonzalez (H) def. Valerie Ho (C) 6-1, 6-2
5. Rachel Eason (H) vs. Sarah Campbell (C) DNF (6-4, 1-4)
6. Chelsea Williams (H) vs. Ana Elhom (C) DNF (4-6, 3-5)
#7 Yale 4, #5 Dartmouth 1
Doubles
1. Martinelli/Gong (Y) def. Chiu/Lyn (D) 6-2
2. Dunleavy/Lou (Y) def. Peng/Paripovic (D) 6-1
3. Hwang/Chuang (D) vs. Wang/Amos (Y) DNF (4-4)
Singles
1. Abigail Chiu (D) vs. Samantha Martinelli (Y) DNF (5-7, 2-5)
2. Caroline Dunleavy (Y) def. Racquel Lyn (D) 6-3, 6-2
3. Jessie Gong (Y) def. Nicole Conard (D) 6-3, 6-3
4. Raissa Lou (Y) def. Chuyang Guan (D) 6-4, 6-1
5. Paripovic (D) vs. Kathy Wang (Y) DNF (6-1, 5-4)
6. Jingyi Peng (D) def. Caroline Amos (Y) 6-4, 6-0
#6 Penn 4, #4 Brown 0
Doubles
1. Kowalska/Curnic (P) def. Jack/Peus (B) 6-3
2. Bryzgolova/Singh (P) def. Ta/Reddy (B) 6-2
3. Newman/Cosme (B) def. Zhu/Levine (P) 6-2
Singles
1. Iuliia Bryzgolova (P) def. Devon Jack (B) 6-4, 6-1
2. Marta Kowalska (P) def Sophia Reddy (B) 6-2, 6-0
3. Ryan Peua (B) vs. Marija Curnic (P) DNF (6-4, 3-1)
4. Ashley Zhu (P) def. Juliana Simon (B) 6-2, 6-2
5. Katie Ta (B) vs. OJ Singh (P) DNF (4-6, 2-3)
6. Julia Newman (B) vs. Mini Levine (P) DNF (4-6, 2-3)
#2 Columbia 4, #1 Princeton 1
Doubles
1. Kalhorn/Shvets (P) vs. Bhan/Ferrari (C) DNF (3-5)
2. Joyce/McKee (P) def. Wan/Kevakian (C) 6-3
3. Schrage/Rodilosso (P) def. Kerr/Hu (C) 6-4
Singles
1. Stephanie Schrage (P) vs. Jennifer Kerr (C) DNF (6-7, 6-3, 2-1)
2. Akanksha Bahn (C) def. Brianna Shvets (P) 2-6, 6-0, 6-3
3. Christie Wan (C) def. Nicoloe Kalhorn (P) 6-4, 6-2
4. Melissa Sakar (C) def. Clare McKee (P) 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
5. Grace Joyce (P) vs. Andrea Kevakian (C) DNF (6-4, 5-7, 3-3)
6. Sarah Hu (C) def. Nathalie Rodilosso (P) 6-1, 2-6, 6-4